1. Field
The following description relates to an apparatus and method for providing augmented reality (AR) information.
2. Discussion of the Background
As mobile communication terminals equipped with various services and functions is have increasingly been released, service systems have been developed to provide users with a variety of information.
Recently, augmented reality (AR) technologies have been introduced to an information provider system using the mobile communication terminals to offer a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment, whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery.
A conventional information provider system using the AR technology to offer product information to users will be described with reference to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a conventional information provider system using augmented reality. Referring to FIG. 1, a mobile communication terminal 120 is equipped with a camera to take a picture of a tag pattern 112 attached to a product 111 in a product unit 110. The mobile communication terminal 120 transmits the tag pattern 112 to an information provider server 140 over a communication network 130. The information provider server 140 retrieves product information, including an external image, a price, and performance of the product 111, associated with the tag pattern 112 from a database 150 and transmits the product information to the mobile communication terminal 120. The mobile communication terminal 120 displays the product information on a screen.
In this case, however, since the mobile communication terminal 120 sends the tag pattern 112 to the information provider server 140, the information provider server 140 retrieves the product information from the database 150, the mobile communication terminal 120 receives the product information from the information provider server 140, and the mobile communication terminal 120 provides the product information to a user, it takes the user a long time to receive the product information.
Further, since the same product information is associated with each tag pattern 112, the same product information is provided to each user, which does not cater to users' diversified tastes and results in a low efficiency of the tag pattern.
In addition, due to limited storage capacity of the mobile communication terminal, storage capacity must be expanded or a user has to delete stored information to receive new information.